The desire for instant gratification seems to increase as more and more social media outlets pop up, along with technology.

At the touch of a button on your smart phone, you can see what a person is doing by checking a Facebook or Twitter account and with a ding know as soon as your favorite player crosses the goal line.

ULM fans who were not at Arkansas State this past weekend did not have a lot of dings go off on their phones as the Warhawks failed to score until the fourth quarter and on their way to a 28-14 loss.

Head coach Todd Berry gets it. He is also one of those people who “live in the now moments.”

Not so much with the social media – even he admits to not being very social media saavy, although he did break down and create a Twitter account a couple years ago. More of his now moments occur in two places — around town and in his own head.

“I don’t get out as much during the season, but this week is different than the previous ones,” Berry said. “Before, people would come up and say, ‘Hey, great season,’ and all that kind of stuff.

“This week it’s more, ‘Oh ... tough loss.’ Society is built on the now moments, and that’s a good thing, but you can’t ride the roller coaster.”

Prior to last week’s loss, ULM had the confidence of a Sun Belt championship contender, and Berry assures that his team still does – despite the Arkansas State setback marking its first conference loss of the season.

If the team had been on a roller coaster, the first month brought about a lot of twists and turns that ended up being one big thrill with the three wins that came late in the games.

This past week \would have taken the stomach out of all involved, though, with one big plummet and the realization that this offense is not the ULM offense from the past four seasons.

Again, Berry lives in the now moments and wants success now, if not yesterday — or rather Saturday. He is an offensive coach and has been since he entered the profession more than 30 years ago, but sometimes figuring out what you’re good at brings about a lot of disheartening moments too.

“It’s been a little bit of a struggle,” Berry said. “This is really hard to swallow. It’s really hard. This is the least productive I’ve been around in 31 years, and that’s got to change.”

ULM totaled 348 yards of offense at Arkansas State with only 32 yards in the first quarter, 34 in the second and 89 in the third quarter. It’s a hard thing to sort through when you’re almost a victim of your own success.

Berry has put exciting offenses on the field in the past from the days of Steven Jyles when he was ULM’s offensive coordinator in 2004 and ’05 to the past four years of Kolton Browning and specifically the 2012 season.

Like any artist or writer or musician, masterpieces are few and far between. The overall product ends up remarkable, but unlike the other professions, football’s progress to achieving greatness is out there every Saturday for the sports world to see — and moan and groan and sometimes even boo at.

Others don’t see the wadded up pieces of paper from an author that threw out or canvas that were burned.

“Some of this is trying to establish the post-Kolton era,” Berry said. “Browning was a very, very unique player because of his ability to create his own offense. I think offensively, a couple of years ago we were the talk of college football. It’s hard to lose some of those things because they’ve been good to you, but they don’t always fit your personnel you have currently.

“Offensively, I think what we need to do is we need to pair some things down,” Berry said. “We are doing way too much right now. I think that’s hurting our execution significantly, because we are asking some guys that maybe haven’t been in the program as long to maybe function in some things that they really haven’t had any historical intellect about. They don’t have anything that they can draw back on.”

The fans, on the other hand, as well as the coaching staff that has the same troubles swallowing the offensive stalls, can draw back to the good things that weren‘t so long ago — to the point of when going up against an SEC team, like ULM will this weekend at Kentucky (4-1), they had the confidence of a possible upset.

Maybe those outside of Malone Stadium have lost that, but Berry assures that he and his team have not.

“We’re not going to base everything off one game,” Berry said. “I hope the players don’t do that either